Charlie Nash has been a fan favorite character in the Street Fighter series for years and finally makes his comeback in Street Fighter V, although noticeably a little… different. For those who are unfamiliar with him, continue on for a quick history lesson.

First mentioned in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991) by Guile during his quest for revenge; Nash was a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and one of Guile’s best friends. Although it was hinted that M.Bison was involved in Charlie’s disappearance in the past, it was never really fully explained…

…until the Street Fighter Alpha series, that is. In Street Fighter Alpha II (1996) we see firsthand that a helicopter controlled by M.Bison’s forces make quick work of Nash as M.Bison gets away. Initially presumed to be dead by both friends and foes alike, Nash’s return shows that his story is far from over.

While the mysteries surrounding his return will become clear later on, for now we’re pleased to announce that the originator of the Sonic Boom is back with quite a few new tricks.

The second piece of news is perhaps the most exciting of all. Also announced today, we will be performing the largest and most ambitious online beta program in franchise history with Street Fighter V on PS4 and PC! These tests will be essential to collect your feedback and to ensure that Street Fighter V is the best iteration yet. In North America, players who pre-order the game will automatically be enrolled into the beta program.

More details, including timing on the beta program will be revealed in the future so stay tuned for updates. Until then, SONIC BOOM!

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/02/24/street-fighter-v-nash-returns-online-beta-plans/feed/48http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/capcom.jpg4.34Capcom, Community Manager480Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Tournament Grand Finals Tomorrowhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/12/07/street-fighter-25th-anniversary-tournament-grand-finals-tomorrow/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/12/07/street-fighter-25th-anniversary-tournament-grand-finals-tomorrow/#commentsFri, 07 Dec 2012 21:23:19 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=92609Facebook page here) is free to enter, but is sure to fill up, so get there early in the day if you can. The fun kicks off at 10:00am PST.]]>

The 25th Anniversary Tournament Series has been the backbone of Capcom’s year-long celebration of Street Fighter, and this Saturday, December 8th, The Grand Finals are aimed to deliver one of most epic Ultra combos the fighting game scene has ever experienced. This isn’t just a tournament, this event is a pure bonanza of Street Fighter love: amazing competition, new announcements, killer artwork, tons of freebies, costumes, photos ops, signing sessions… we are even giving away a custom Street Fighter Scion FR-S Sports Coupe!

If you’re in the bay area, I highly recommend swinging by. The event (Facebook page here) is free to enter, but is sure to fill up, so get there early in the day if you can. The fun kicks off at 10:00am PST.

If you can’t make it in person, don’t worry — we will be live streaming the whole thing from our new Capcom Fighters channel. We also have a website with the brackets up, so you can follow along with the matches at home.

The Grand Finals features the best players who qualified across eight different regions throughout the world. This tournament pays out over $125,000 dollars in cash prizes — the largest prize pool in fighting game history — and with that type of money on the line, these players are out for blood. They will be competing across four classic Street Fighter games: Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Street Fighter X Tekken, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike – Online Edition, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (played as Super Turbo).

It has been a long and hard-fought journey, full of masterful victories, classy defeats, upsets, blow-ups, salty pop-offs… it’s been a whole lot of fun to watch. Our friends at shoryuken.com put together some great recap articles (here and here) that highlight some of the season’s best moments, so if you want a deeper dive you can check these out here:

But this event isn’t just a tournament, the day is jam packed with fun Street Fighter activities and giveaways. The first 1,000 people through the door will receive an exclusive goodie bag, including:

SF25 Event T-shirt

SF25 red Ryu headband

Program book

UDON SF comic books

Other various goodies from all our vendors

Some bags will have “Golden Tickets,” or special larger prizes hidden inside!

We also have scheduled four raffles throughout the course of the day, featuring some high-end collectibles from our sponsors, including SF25 Collector’s Sets, Oni Statues from SoTA toys, Musterbrand jackets, AverMedia capture cards, and a very high end painted sculpture from Protototype-Z.

If you can’t make it to the event in person, don’t fret! There is a ton of stuff to win online as well. Asus, Kineda, AverMedia, and Prototype-Z are all running twitter contests with large prizes. We’ll have all the full details up on www.Capcom-Unity.com, so check there and enter for your chance to win and help support our sponsors!

There is also going to be a live art show by Tsunami Syndicate, featuring new original artwork inspired by 25 years of Street Fighter. Legendary producers Yoshinori Ono and Tomoaki Ayano will be there in full force, and we’ll have plenty of posters available for their signing sessions. If you need a healthy dose of cute-factor, Hello Kitty Chun-Li will be busting cameos throughout the day, perfect for awesome photo opportunities. Cosplay is highly encouraged, and we will be featuring a cosplay contest where you can win some SF25 Collector’s Sets. Also, for those who want to not just watch the games, there will be a bunch of set ups there for you to test your skills at Street Fighter X Tekken (console and PS Vita), Darkstalkers Resurrection, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Super Turbo, 3rd Strike Online Edition, and more. Rumor has it that we will be announcing something new for players to get their hands on, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

So, kick your holidays off with a Super combo of Street Fighter awesomeness! Get hype, and make your way to the venue (or stream monster it up online) — this is sure to be a truly historic event for the fighting game scene, and it may take another 25 years for us to be able to pull something off like this again. Thanks to everyone for their support and enjoy the festivities!

Back on August 30, 1987, Capcom released Street Fighter in arcades, which seemed relatively innocuous until you gave it a second look. The graphics were average for the time, the voice acting was quite muffled, and the controls were strict and unforgiving. You could normally only choose a single character – a redheaded, red-shoed martial artist named Ryu – unless a second player came on, in which case they could play a blonde clone named Ken. Most people who play it would agree that it’s not the best game in the series, but there were people who saw its potential, and decided to continue the franchise with Street Fighter II. With that, one of the video games’ biggest icons stepped into the spotlight.

Over the past 25 years, Street Fighter has worked itself up from humble beginnings in the arcade to being a cultural phenomenon throughout the world. Millions of people interact with it every day, in a myriad of ways. In all truth, the fans define the franchise as much as the games. And it was these people who inspired the creation of the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector’s Set.

This set represents the combined passion and enthusiasm of literally hundreds of people who have contributed to making Street Fighter games over the last 25 years, and serves as a love letter to anyone who cares about the franchise. When we first met to discuss the set’s creation, the two questions we asked were “What is the maximum amount of stuff we can get into this box?” and “How do we create something that celebrates all the different kinds of fans we have out there?” These questions helped lead us to one of the most intensive, thoughtful, and fan-oriented collector’s sets in Capcom history.

So, let’s look at our different sources of inspiration. What is Street Fighter? Well, the easiest place to start is with the games. Obviously, without the Street Fighter games, there would not be anything else. We included all the titles currently available for PlayStation 3, representing many of the series’ highlights. Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition and Street Fighter x Tekken are included as physical discs. We’re also including all of the costume DLC for SSFIVAE (that’s over 100 costumes!) and for SFxT, the 12 additional character DLC and all available Swap costumes. You can also download two of our digital titles, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition. With all of that, you’ll have something to play for whatever mood you’re in.

When you get your Collector’s Set for PS3, you are in for a special treat. Sony, being a big supporter of fighting game fans and Street Fighter fans in particular, actually came to us at Capcom and told us that they want to help celebrate the 25th Anniversary by offering additional content for PlayStation 3. As such, the PS3 set includes Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 as PSone Classic titles; Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max as a PSP download, all downloadable content for Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition, and lots of avatars (over 170). We are proud to be working with Sony to get this to you.

We knew from fan feedback that people also enjoy Street Fighter beyond just playing the games. One of the most pervasive ways that fans interact with the franchise away from consoles and arcades is through the artwork. The games are filled with great art, and this inspires a wide variety of artists from all over the world. We wanted to capture a piece of that, and bring recognition to some of the incredible pieces that have been created, so we put a call out to artists around the world to participate. We got hundreds of entries, but were eventually able to narrow it down to a select sample to be included in a 64-page hardcover art book.

I myself am a music lover, and Street Fighter’s music is recognizable to gamers and non-gamers alike. Whether it’s the iconic Street Fighter 2 main theme or the Guile theme (it really does go with everything!), Street Fighter has proven that throwing a punch is much better with music. So, we wanted to include something for audiophiles by providing 11 discs of music. This includes nine discs of soundtracks – covering Street Fighter, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, and Street Fighter x Tekken – and two discs of fan-created music. As with the artwork, we asked people to send in their music. The talent in the response humbled us, and made it incredibly difficult to make our selections from the 300+ entries. However, we managed to create two CDs: one with remixes/remakes of existing themes, and one which is original music inspired by Street Fighter. Some of these fans have serious futures ahead of them, and it’s an honor to be able to include them in the Collector’s Set and make them a piece of the franchise’s history.

Then, of course, you have the collectors… the people who like to showcase items on their shelves. Here again, we have this group covered. Inside the large black box (which itself is a collectible), you’ll find an eight-inch statue of Ryu flying up with a Shoryuken. Not only is it a highly-detailed statue (the texture on his gi is some of the best I’ve seen on a figure that size), but the flames in the base even light up to show off at night. Then we have the life-size, embroidered Ryu replica belt, complete with the furinkazan kanji.

Continuing on, we have a two-disc Blu-Ray set, with over 12 hours of content. This features a lot of animated content, including the entirety of the incredibly cheesy (but-oh-so-fun) Saturday morning cartoon show from 1995, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (in my opinion, featuring some of the best fight scenes choreographed for any film, live-action or animated), Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind, and the Super Street Fighter IV Original Video Animation, aka the “Juri anime,” which is being released in English for the first time ever. However, the most exciting piece of video content is “I am Street Fighter,” a brand new documentary we commissioned. As you may have been able to tell through this post, Street Fighter has impacted many people’s lives, and vice-versa. That’s what this documentary looks at – the people who have influenced the Street Fighter franchise, and the people whose lives have been influenced by it. It’s a fascinating, and occasionally heartwarming look into the cultural phenomenon.

As you can see, we kept every type of fan in mind when creating the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector’s Set and we’re incredibly proud to bring it to fans. In fact, there has never been a better time to be a Street Fighter fan. Whether you were there from the beginning, or just began in the past couple of years, you are part of a rich legacy and vibrant community. You can see both of these in action at our anniversary website.

You make Street Fighter what it is. You are Street Fighter. So from all of us at Capcom – thank you!

I’ve listened to PlayStation users voice their opinions for the past 10 years. They’ve said, “We’re waiting for the next numbered sequel to Street Fighter!”

I have to apologize that it took Capcom almost a decade to make the decision… but, I really appreciate your continuous support, and I’m now armed with weapons and armor to fight as Capcom’s voice in this tough global market. It is as if I’m fighting as King Arthur from Ghosts ‘n Goblins!

The original Street Fighter IV was released in February 2009. Before that, it has been about 15 years since the SFII series, and 10 years since the SFIII series. I strongly feel that SFIV wouldn’t have happened without your support. I’m glad that Street Fighter is now back, and I’d like to say “thank you” to all of you.

And now SFIV is fully renewed and, to reinforce the upgrades, we’ve added the pre-fix “Super.” All of the additions are a reflection of what you, the fans, have voiced, so I hope you will continue to play it as long as possible. Also, please be sure that I truly did try to listen to your requests as much as possible in deciding the new characters.

There are also fans demanding functionality related to PlayStation Network, so we’ve implemented the “Endless Battle” and “Team Battle” modes. “Team Battle” allows users to play as a team, and provides you with a platform for researching which are the best teams. Also, all of the modes have the “battle observation” mode, which allows you to watch the matches as they are played by your friends. All battles can be saved with the replay save request if you want. These features were created to build a stronger community within PSN.

Also, all SSFIV replay data which is saved on your PS3 can be shared with other online-connected PS3’s worldwide. This “Replay Channel Mode” allows you to watch any replays and is available 24/7 on the PS3 through PSN. Now you can’t hide from Street Fighter anymore!

As many of you know, we had a PlayStation-supported SSFIV Fight Club event with the fans in a Los Angeles suburb on Friday, April 23rd. It was a big success, and I was pleasantly surprised that about 1,000 fans attended! It is this amazing support that is exceptionally important, and provides the motivation for us to develop new projects in the future. To be completely honest, I’m absolutely exhausted now since I’ve been running non-stop for several years, so please let me take a break for a little bit. J I’m sure that the break won’t last that long…

I’ll be back in the near future with a great idea for a new project which will hopefully get you excited!

Well, the last topic on this blog is about the Super Tournament Mode that will be available as a free download for SSFIV this June. To showcase how great this new mode is, we’re planning to organize an online tournament in cooperation with SCEA. Tournament Mode allows us to create exclusive “titles” (like a champion belt) that will be awarded to the winner of the tournament. Please look forward to it, and stay tuned!

With the big support from all the PlayStation users, Super Street Fighter IV has been excitingly launched! I consider a fighting game to be a virtual “tool” of real fighting. And, as in real-life fighting, perfection is what we are striving for. So if any unexpected bugs happen, please let us know and we’ll do our best to fix them.

It would be highly appreciated if you keep conveying your requests and voicing your opinions to us moving forward. We will try our best to implement your requests in the future.

Finally, I’m looking forward to seeing all of you somewhere in the future. And, I expect you to “Smile” with “Surprise” then.

Everyone, again, thank you very much!

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/04/27/new-release-super-street-fighter-iv-for-ps3/feed/98http://a.psblogstatics.com/wp-content/themes/twenty11/images/rss-default.jpg4.1Producer, Capcom981LA, you’re invited! Super Street Fighter IV Event this Fridayhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/04/19/la-youre-invited-super-street-fighter-iv-event-this-friday/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/04/19/la-youre-invited-super-street-fighter-iv-event-this-friday/#commentsTue, 20 Apr 2010 04:04:06 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=27802Hi guys, I’m Seth Killian, O.G. Street Fighter, Capcom community guy, and the shadowy “special advisor” to Super Street Fighter IV. I wanted to give the PlayStation.Blog a heads-up on a little party we’re teaming up with Sony to throw in honor of the arrival of our new game.

For those who don’t know, we call these things “Fight Clubs” and the concept is pretty simple. We find an underground location (sometimes literally underground, sometimes just an abandoned warehouse, sometimes a sneaker shop, but you get the idea), and drop a bunch of Street Fighter games in there, then let people throw down in arcade-style, face-to-face combat. We spice it up with some totally exclusive shirt giveaways, exclusive artwork and giftbags, and maybe… just maybe, some extra epic events.

The party is going down this Friday, April 23rd, from 8pm to midnight, in Los Angeles, CA (in the Silver Lake neighborhood). We’ll post the exact address on Thursday, so stay tuned, but here’s a little taste of what’s in store, and why people are already making plans to fly into town just for this party:

Hands on with Super Street Fighter IV, including chances to win an early copy of the final game on PlayStation 3.

Great Street Fighter art on the exclusive shirts + posters, live art on the walls, and even… on you?

Gift bags for the first few hundred fans through the door

Live DJ, light food and drinks

Big-screen game exhibitions, plus appearances from some very special guests all the way from Japan

One final note—we have an, um… special opportunity for some brave fans to win some great prizes, but to participate, you’ll want to bring a change of clothes—clothes you don’t mind having potentially destroyed :-)

For anyone that isn’t in LA, or just can’t make it, you can watch the action on the Capcom ustream page. Event starts at 8, but we may begin streaming anytime that day!

Super Street Fighter IV arrives on April 27th, and it’s only $39.99. For fighting fans, this is a no-brainer, but for anybody that missed out on the original Street Fighter IV, or just wants to see what it is about these games that drives their fans so crazy, do yourself a favor pick this up (and come down to the party!)

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/04/19/la-youre-invited-super-street-fighter-iv-event-this-friday/feed/54http://a.psblogstatics.com/wp-content/themes/twenty11/images/rss-default.jpg4.22Capcom Senior Manager, Community544Talking Super Street Fighter IV with Capcom’s Seth Killianhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/11/16/talking-super-street-fighter-iv-with-capcoms-seth-killian/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/11/16/talking-super-street-fighter-iv-with-capcoms-seth-killian/#commentsMon, 16 Nov 2009 17:01:29 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=19538Recently we were granted an hour to go hands on with the follow-up to Capcom’s Street Fighter IV. You may have seen some shots of new character Juri, or the resurrected (and redesigned) DeeJay and T. Hawk. You can see them in action in the video below.

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/11/16/talking-super-street-fighter-iv-with-capcoms-seth-killian/feed/66http://a.psblogstatics.com/wp-content/themes/twenty11/images/rss-default.jpg3.96Sr. Social Media Manager661UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Hits PlayStation Home + Tekken 6 & Street Fighter IV Spaceshttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/10/21/uncharted-2-among-thieves-hits-playstation-home-tekken-6-street-fighter-iv-spaces/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/10/21/uncharted-2-among-thieves-hits-playstation-home-tekken-6-street-fighter-iv-spaces/#commentsWed, 21 Oct 2009 16:01:18 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=18114It’s one of the biggest releases of the entire year and it’s about to get much, much bigger. This Thursday, October 22 Friday, October 23, UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves is coming into PlayStation Home, and you’ll want to do whatever it is that needs to be done to ensure that you are in-world to take part in the grand opening of this awesome new space. Why? Because not only is this game space chock full of amazing supplementary UNCHARTED 2 content that can only be experienced in the ever-evolving world of PlayStation Home, but there are quite a few exclusive items that can only be procured on opening day.

Set inside a breathtaking Nepalese village surrounding that was constructed with assets pulled directly from the game, this immersive environment contains three unique UNCHARTED 2-themed mini-games that will keep you coming back for more. Treasure hunters will be driven to the Mask Mayhem questing mini-game where you must search throughout the village to assemble the scattered remnants of an ancient Ganesh mask (which, upon completion, miraculously appears in your Wardrobe). Adventurers that pride themselves on their agility will love the challenge presented by the Torch Race, and will revel in getting their PSN IDs plastered on the game’s leaderboard. Action addicts with a penchant for strategy will be engrossed by the Fortunate Thieves card battle game where players will seek out treasure on maps that are fully dynamic (with weather and terrain effects,) all while using the expandable card pack to thwart one another with a bevy of treacherous tricks. Check out the video below to see this space and the associated games for yourself, with even more details explained by PlayStation Home Director Jack Buser.

We also have two new game spaces launching this Thursday Friday that are sure to appeal to all of you fighting fans out there. That’s right – Tekken 6 and Street Fighter IV are getting their own dedicated game spaces. These game spaces come loaded with Tekken 6 and Street Fighter IV-related content and will serve as the perfect hubs for all of you bare-knuckled brawlers and PlayStation 3 pugilists that are looking for areas to organize game launching tournaments (or just looking for a new opponent to quickly pummel). To top it all off, 25 Street Fighter IV alternate costumes will also be released tomorrow, so head to the Mall to guile up and then get to swinging.

Speaking of great new content to collect, the new Penthouse personal space will be released tomorrow. High rollers, big ballers, shot callers, and those of you that simply have a taste for the finer things in life will find this luxury urban condo the ideal place to return to after a raging event in Central Plaza. You can pick this new place up for yourself at the Estates store in the Mall (along with a boatload of new virtual items releasing this week).

Last, but certainly not least, you’ll notice that a new version of PlayStation Home – version 1.32 – will be prompted for download when you attempt to login. This client update will address many of the issues that the community has reported to us post-1.3. You should find that gaining access to the service is much, much, MUCH easier. So if you’ve had problems logging into Home over the last few weeks, have no fear, and be sure to get into PlayStation Home later this week to take part in all of the radness scheduled to occur.

See you in Home!

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/10/21/uncharted-2-among-thieves-hits-playstation-home-tekken-6-street-fighter-iv-spaces/feed/159http://a.psblogstatics.com/wp-content/themes/twenty11/images/rss-default.jpg4.56PlayStation Home Community Manager1595Street Fighter Hadoukens Zen Pinball Todayhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/08/20/street-fighter-hadoukens-zen-pinball-today/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/08/20/street-fighter-hadoukens-zen-pinball-today/#commentsThu, 20 Aug 2009 16:57:24 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=14980Get your flippin’ fingers ready! It’s my pleasure to announce that today ZEN Pinball Street Fighter II Tribute is making its worldwide debut as the first expansion table for ZEN Pinball. That’s right, we’ve coordinated our launch efforts with our friends over at Sony to make sure that our fans on both sides of the pond can experience on day one the legendary Street Fighter franchise as only ZEN Pinball can deliver. We also included a few screens below for a first look at the table!

And for everyone looking for a great value… well you can be the judge and jury! In the US you can grab the Street Fighter inspired table for only $2.49, and a mere 1.99 EURO in Europe. Not bad, right? For more information, be sure to check out the official site for ZEN Pinball at: www.zenpinball.com.

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/08/20/street-fighter-hadoukens-zen-pinball-today/feed/50http://a.psblogstatics.com/wp-content/themes/twenty11/images/rss-default.jpg4.25Managing Director, Zen Studios500ZEN Pinball Street Fighter Tablehttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/08/06/zen-pinball-street-fighter-table/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/08/06/zen-pinball-street-fighter-table/#commentsThu, 06 Aug 2009 14:01:02 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=14357Zsolt from ZEN Studios here! In case you missed yesterday’s memo, I’m here to tell you there’s a new table coming for ZEN Pinball. We’ve teamed up with Capcom and you guessed it, we’re bringing the one and only Street Fighter franchise as the first expansion table for the newly released PSN exclusive ZEN Pinball. As long time Street Fighter fans, we here at ZEN Studios are extremely excited about this collaboration and we can’t wait to get this table out the door to all our fans!

To give you a little idea of what makes this table so unique, we’ve loaded it with all the iconic Street Fighter II characters that revolutionized the fighting genre, from Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Guile to Sagat, Evil Ryu, Vega, Balrog and even M. Bison! The locations, missions, and even the tempo of the game capture the feel and look of the Street Fighter brand, so if you’re a fan of the franchise you’ll need to check this table out.

Right now we have a tentative release date scheduled for sometime in August 2009, so stay tuned to this blog, or check out the official ZEN Pinball site for more details.

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/08/06/zen-pinball-street-fighter-table/feed/58http://a.psblogstatics.com/wp-content/themes/twenty11/images/rss-default.jpg4.23Managing Director, Zen Studios580Attention Fighting Fans: Prove You’re the Best… Around!http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/07/08/attention-fighting-fans-prove-youre-the-best-around/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/07/08/attention-fighting-fans-prove-youre-the-best-around/#commentsWed, 08 Jul 2009 20:31:29 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=12975Hello PlayStation-land. I’m Seth Killian. I run community for Capcom, and if you like Street Fighter, you’ve probably seen me running my mouth about it around the internets. I’m the special advisor to Street Fighter IV and lent my name to the final boss, but what brings me here today is what got me to Capcom in the first place: organizing the EVO Championship Series.

What is EVO? It’s the world’s largest and longest-running fighting game tournament. Every year, thousands of competitors from every corner of the planet descend on Las Vegas to determine the best of the best on the most competitive fighting games. It’s been running for over a decade, and with all the hoopla over SFIV, this year is going to be bigger than ever—at a conservative estimate, we’ll be playing over 50 thousand matches over the course of the weekend as we work our way towards a champion.

Why are we talking about this on the PlayStation Blog? Because EVO is especially PlayStation 3-flavored this year. PlayStation has been an important part of EVO history, but this year, we’ve selected the PS3 as the platform of choice for our very biggest competitions, including Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV.

Why else would you care? Because EVO is rad. It’s fighting game heaven with some of the most exciting gaming you’ll see anywhere, it’s run by players, for players, and best of all, it’s free to watch.

(I’m actually the one holding that handicam and yes, that’s my stupid voice cracking with excitement. For reference, this wasn’t even the finals—EVO is full of insane moments)

What is there to do? Well, there are all the tournaments to play in, but beyond the official tournaments (on games including my Capcom favorites, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and of course Street Fighter IV), there are a ton of DIY side events and free-play on every fighter imaginable in the free “BYOC” area. BYOC = “Bring Your Own Console.” Nearly half of our gigantic tournament floor is devoted to a free-play area, where we set up TVs, and you can plug in any games you want, on everything from next-gen PS3s to old arcade hardware. You’ll find competition on nearly any fighter you can imagine, from classic Street Fighter games to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters. There are also plenty of exciting grudge matches, and when you’re tired of playing and watching the madness, you’re still in Las Vegas.

One of my other favorite things about EVO is that unlike most “pro gaming” events, EVO is an open tournament. By “open,” I mean that anybody can just walk in off the street and take their shot against the best players in the world. You don’t have to jump through any hoops or join a silly league—if you’ve got the skills, you can step up to the plate take your shot. All of the EVO directors grew up playing in the arcades, where skills talked, and BS walked. EVO grew straight out of our desire to preserve that electric spirit of live arcade competitions, and—just like our old arcades—anyone can walk in, put their quarter up, and prove that they’ve got the skills to be the best.

All of that is hotness, but what I love most about EVO is the people. They come from around the world, from Korea to Kuwait, the UK to the US, and Portugal to Peru. And yes, while it’s mostly dudes, beyond that, you’ll find every race, every background—rich, poor, old and young, tough guys and pencilnecks. Of course you’ll find the world’s top fighting game players, including US champions like Alex Valle, John Choi, Justin Wong, and the legendary Japanese champ Daigo Umehara, and everyone comes together with a shared sense of history, and a shared passion for these games. They are the best, the hungriest, and the loudest players in the world. They are shouting, they are cheering, and they mean it.

So with all of those experts from around the world, do you have to be a great player to go? Nope. 99% of the people there realize they’re probably not going to win, but they love to go anyway because it’s a ton of fun, a great way to see old friends and meet new ones, a great place to step up your game, and because it’s an amazing show. There’s a ton of history and heart in the competitive fighting world, and this is the The Big Show, with everyone is welcome to come and watch (or compete!). Fighting games are FUN, and even if you don’t understand every intricacy, everyone can understand a punch in the face, cheering for their hometown favorites, and trying to KO the opponent.

The EVO World Finals run from July 17-19th (finals on the 19th) at the Rio Hotel and Resort, in sunny Las Vegas, NV.

Check out EVO2K for the full details, then pack up your PS3 joysticks and fightpads, and I’ll see you at EVO. If you totally can’t make it to Vegas, we’ll also be streaming some of the event’s best matches, as well as putting up a whole mess of footage afterwards, complete with commentary, player interviews, and the like, so stay tuned.